Rapid ecotoxicological assessment of heavy metal combined polluted soil using canonical analysis

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Chen, Su-hua | Zhou, Qi-xing | Sun, Tie-heng | Li, Pei-jun

Affiliations: Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China

Abstract: Quick, simple to perform, and cheap biomarkers were combined in a rapid assessment approach to measure the effects of metal pollutants, Cu, Cd, Pb and Zn in meadow burozem on wheat. Analysis of orthogonal design showed that the significant zinc factor indicated both the inhibition rate of shoot mass and that of root elongation were affected by zinc (P<0.05 and P<0.01, respectively). The first toxicity canonical variable (TOXI), formed from the toxicity data set, explained 49% of the total variance in the toxicity data set; the first biological canonical variable (BIOL) explained 42% of the total variation in the biological data set. The correlation between the first canonical variables TOXI and BIOL (canonical correlation) was 0.94 (P<0.0001). Therefore, it is reliable and feasible to use the achievement to assess toxicity of heavy metal combined polluted soil using canonical analysis. Toxicity of soil combined polluted by heavy metals to plant community was estimated by comparing the IC50 values describing the concentration needed to cause 50% decrease with grow rate compared to no metal addition. Environmental quality standard for soils prescribe that all these tested concentration of heavy metals in soil should not cause hazard and pollution ultimately, whereas it indicated that the soils in second grade cause more or less than 50% inhibition rates of wheat growth. So environmental quality standard for soils can be modified to include other features.

Keywords: heavy metal, combined pollution, ecological toxicity, canonical analysis

Journal: Journal of Environmental Sciences, vol. 15, no. 6, pp. 854-858, 2003